To All IDU Members,

Effective immediately after my tenure as UN Delegate, I will be leaving the IDU unfortunately. This has been a truely wonderful region for me and my nation and I thank you all for graciously hosting me. You truely set the standard for the ideals that should be regarded through out the world. I have made many friends with you guys and hope to continue these friendships when I leave.

With my leaving, my ambassadorial position to Futbai Aoi will be vacant. I hope that you guys will be able to find a replacement as soon as possible.

Ever since I first joined Nationstates back in 2004, this was my first 'real' region. I started one of my own (and probably joined a few others), but the IDU caught my eye and I joined it, where I have been ever since. I believe Groot Gouda or Sober Thought sent me that first TG and ever since then I have enjoyed my stay here at the IDU. This place has creating many lasting memories for me.

Serving as delegate has been worthwhile to my time because I really wanted to contribute something to the IDU. I hope that you didn't disapprove of my job here and I thank you guys for considering me when you voted in the last election.

To the candidates in the current election, to all the future leaders of the IDU, I wish you good luck. To all the members, incomming and original, I hope that you guys will continue the path to glory.

Thanks guys,
Michael

I originally created this nation to try and balance human and civil rights with the requirements of Islamic Law - kind of a tall order. Generally, this has made Thalatash a more conservative state, but in recent weeks, I've tried pushing the envelope a bit, making things more progressive than the Authoritarian Democracy it frequently wound up being. Religious tolerance is a more recent issue, but the real dealbreaker for Thalatash is likely to be gay rights. It's an issue that's going right around the world, but Islamic Law slams the door firmly on it, so there's likely going to be some heated internal debate about it.

Sustainable Agriculture Center
A resolution to increase the quality of the world's environment, at the expense of industry.


Category: Environmental
Industry Affected: All Businesses
Proposed by: Love and esterel

Description: The United Nations,

-A- Affirming the importance of sustainable agriculture for our societies,

-B- Defining ?Sustainable Agriculture? as a global agriculture achieving all of the three following goals:
- Sufficient and healthy food for population?s need
- Environmental stewardship
- Good living conditions and prosperity for farmers and farms,

-C- Convinced that, in order to achieve these ambitious goals, the best of both traditional techniques and new technologies have to be used with a sensible, critical, secure and ethical approach:


-1- ESTABLISH the UNSARC ? UN Sustainable Agriculture Resource Center ? for the purpose of collecting, sharing, educating and studying sustainable agriculture techniques and experiences in member nations, via UNSARC national branches in interested nations and free internet resources and forums;


-2- PROMOTES by its UNSARC agency the following:

-2.1- Water-saving management systems such as drip irrigation (drop by drop) or surge irrigation (intermittent application of water),

-2.2- Traditional rain-harvesting systems such as reservoirs, tanks, wells or johads (small earthen check dams build across a slope that capture and conserve rainwater), their shading to decrease evaporation and collective projects to build them,

-2.3- Crop rotation practices and polyculture to decrease pests (insects, weeds, pathogens ?) and soil depletion,

-2.4- Scientific researches for more-biodegradable and less toxic pesticides (insecticides, herbicides, bactericides ?) and ecological biological ones,

-2.5- The sensible use of pesticides for agriculture (as for road maintenance) along with small predators animals in order both to protect crops and avoid soil degradation,

-2.6- Land distribution to farmers, in particular in areas with labour intensive agriculture

-2.7- The suppression of animal carcass in livestock feeding;

-2.8- The mitigation of new cultivated areas gained over forests


-3- CHARGES the UNSARC with studying the safety and effects of artificial hybrid crops (the result of interbreeding between two varieties) and GM crops (Genetically modified crops) and with giving recommendations on this matter following the principles below:

-3.1- The tractability of GM crops and the labelling of genetically modified food,

-3.2- The need of security testing for new hybrid and GM crops; in particular those with an insect resistance trait,

-3.3- The encouragement of scientific researches for new safe hybrid and GM crops with a disease, drought, floods, heat or cold resistance traits or with added vitamin

-3.4- The refusal of sterile GM crops (so called terminator technology) in the wild,

-3.5- The awareness that hybrid and GM crops with an herbicide resistance trait may induce damageable over-use of herbicides,

-3.6- The need for hybrid and GM crops with an insect resistance trait for ?refuges? (a 20% belt of non-hybrid or non-GM crops inside any hybrid or GM crop parcel),

-3.7- The even greater importance of crop rotation practices and polyculture whith hybrid and GM crops.

Co-authored by CR Oscilloscopes

Votes For: 837

Votes Against: 312

[Delegate Votes]

Voting Ends: Mon Oct 30 2006

Quote: Chemical Transport Standards

A resolution to reduce barriers to free trade and commerce.


Category: Free Trade


Strength: Mild


Proposed by: Norderia

Description: WHEREAS chemicals are a widely traded commodity;

WHEREAS no current standards exist for the identification or transportation of chemical substances;

WHEREAS the variety of nations in the UN may have myriad means of identifying and transporting chemical substances;

The United Nations;

BELIEVING that a lack of standards regarding the identification and transportation of chemical substances is a severe safety hazard;

1. ESTABLISHES the United Nations Hazard Rating (UNHR). The UNHR is a rating for common hazards of chemical substances. The UNHR includes the following information:
i) A flamability rating of 0 to 4, where 0 indicates a small flamability risk, and 4 indicates a high flamability risk;
ii) A health risk rating of 0 to 4, where 0 indicates a small health risk, and 4 indicates a high health risk;
iii) A reactivity risk rating of 0 to 4, where 0 indicates a small reactivity risk, and 4 indicates a high reactivity risk;
iv) A special notation to indicate specific risks, such as, but not restricted to an exceptionally high reactivity to water, or for strong oxidizers;

2. ESTABLISHES the United Nations Chemical Transportation Commission (UNCTC). The following are the UNCTC's duties:
i) To compile a list of, and define hazardous materials;
ii) To enumerate the list of hazardous materials, using the Arabic numerals (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9), using twelve digits for each substance. These 12-digit numbers will be known as Chemical Identification Numbers (CIN);
iii) To prescribe minimum requirements for the safe transportation of hazardous materials;
iv) To compile a list of all other chemical substances and assign a CIN to each. A new CIN is to be assigned to differing isomers and isotopes of substances with identical chemical makeups;
v) To determine the UNHR for the substances as described in sections 2i and 2iv;

3. MANDATES
i) That UN member nations comply with the UNCTC's requirements and employ the UNCTC's CINs when transporting substances over international borders and international waters;
ii) That containers containing hazardous materials are clearly marked as such, on all faces of the containers. These markings will include the UNHR and CIN for the substance held within the container;
iii) That, under non-emergency circumstances, no substances shall be placed in a container that is marked for another substance;
iv) That, under non-emergency circumstances, no containers shall be vandalized, or mislabeled to misrepresent the substances contained within, or their potential hazard risks;
v) That UN member nations inform non-member nations that shipments that do not comply with the above four clauses may be turned away in the interest of the safety of the receiving nation;

4. EMPHASIZES that this Resolution does not mandate any changes to the current intranational systems being used by member nations;

5. ENCOURAGES member nations to implement the measures set forth by this Resolution in their own national transportation systems.

Voting Ends: Wed Oct 25 2006 [/quote]

When changes were introduced into Nationstates last spring, the most noticable one was the introduction of the regional influence ratings for nations within a region, and for a region within Nationstates,

In recent weeks, we've begin to see changes in nation rankings under this system as the cumulative result of older nations CTE and new nations coming into the region.

I checked the forums at Jolt and found the following link http://www.safalra.com/special/nationstates/influence/

If nothing else, if offers what the ranking of the titles are, even if the method of computation is still a mystery.



Quote:  The ordering of national influence rankings is as follows:

?  1. Hermit
?  2. Hegemony
?  3. Dominator
?  4. Superpower
?  5. Power
?  6. Powerbroker
?  7. Eminence Grise
?  8. Enforcer
?  9. Dealmaker
? 10. Instigator
? 11. Contender
? 12. Negotiator
? 13. Auxiliary
? 14. Ambassador
? 15. Diplomat
? 16. Envoy
? 17. Duckspeaker
? 18. Handshaker
? 19. Truckler
? 20. Vassal
? 21. Minnow
[/quote]

I go to France for a few months and the NSUN adopts conservatism! What!? It's like stepping through a crusty, water stained mirror.

I'd vote against, but my nation has not yet be revived.

I was looking through the repealed resolutions, and I came across Right to Divorce. I though I'd run up a new one, using the suggestions from the repeal.

This is what I have so far:

Quote: Right to Divorce

DEFINING a marriage, for the purpose of this resolution, as a legal bond between two or more people.

RECOGNISING the positive affects of marriage, especially for the children of the married.

NOTING WITH REGRET that some marriages are not happy.

SHOCKED that some people beat their spouses.

APPALLED that in some nations, divorce is not a legal right of the spouse.

MANDATING that divorce be an option for spouses who local law enforcement can determine are being abused mentally or physically by his or her spouse.

This resolution DOES NOT give nor take away the right of a person to marry whomever he or she wishes, nor the right of the person to decide what number of people to marry.
It also does not force nations to recognize marriages of any kind.[/quote]

What do y'all think?

Marriage Protection Act
A resolution to improve worldwide human and civil rights.

Category: Human Rights
Strength: Mild
Proposed by: Witchcliff

Description:
RECOGNISING the wide-ranging differences among UN member governments in how they define and recognise marriage and civil unions within their jurisdictions;

NOTING that some member nations are theocracies that will only recognise unions performed in accordance with the doctrines of their religions and that some member nations do not have any provisions of law recognising formal union between persons, and

BELIEVING that any attempt to impose a definition of marriage as a UN standard, to be applied to all member nations, would be extremely difficult due to these wide ranging differences, and that to do so could cause serious problems for those nations with unusual marriage laws and customs;

The United Nations

DECLARES that it is the right of all UN member nations to define and regulate marriage and civil union within their own borders as they see fit.

ASKS each UN member nation to respect and recognise the marital status of international visitors, even if it does not recognise that status with regard to its own population.

STRONGLY URGES all UN member nations who do recognise marriage or civil union within their nations to apply all laws governing them equally and fairly to the whole population, without discrimination or prejudice.

CONDEMNS the practice of forced marriage between non-consenting individuals.

Co Authored by Ausserland.

Voting Ends: Fri Oct 20 2006

Repeal "Establish UNWCC"
A proposal to repeal a previously passed resolution

Category: Repeal
Resolution: #114
Proposed by: Iron Felix

Description:
UN Resolution #114: Establish UNWCC (Category: Social Justice; Strength: Significant) shall be struck out and rendered null and void.

Argument: THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE UNITED NATIONS

ACKNOWLEDGING the principle of the basic Human Right to sanitary water;

APPLAUDING the efforts of the authors of UN Resolution #114, ?Establish UNWCC?;

CONCERNED, however, with the validity of the scientific arguments used in support of UN Resolution #114, specifically:
A) The claim that ?sewage and waste water pumped in from surrounding areas? can serve as a reliable source of safe drinking water.
B) The further claim that artificial oases and reserves using ?hydroponic plants? can adequately cleanse the wastewater and sewage, making it safe for human consumption.

UNCONVINCED that these methods represent the most efficient and economical means of delivering safe drinking water, particularly in developing nations and areas where sanitary sewage systems are non-existent;

FURTHER, believing that there are more conventional and scientifically proven methods of providing safe drinking water;

HEREBY repeals UN Resolution #114, ?Establish UNWCC?.

Voting Ends: Sun Oct 15 2006

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Happy birthday!